Chapter 136: The team

Chapter 136: The team

"Report to the Chief!" The engineer cadre obviously had no much combat experience, because I saw him saluting to the deputy division commander, and then reported straight: "The order given to us by the superior is to blow up the bridge at four o'clock. If we don't blow up the opportunity to miss the fight..."

As he said that, the engineer cadre took out an order from his shirt and pocket and handed it to the deputy division commander, saying, "This is the order given to us by his superiors!"

"Comrade Engineer!" The deputy division commander frowned while looking at the order in his hand, "Can you blow up the bridge later? Although you have the order, we can no longer watch them coming back at the other end of the bridge..."

The deputy division commander choked at the end of his speech, and his tone seemed to be asking for the engineer cadre. A division commander actually asked for a engineer in a low voice. Such things are rare on the battlefield.

The engineer cadres hesitated for a while, looked at the other engineer soldiers, muttered to them a few words, and then said to the deputy division commander in a dilemma: "Chief, we don't want to leave the elder brother of the infantry on the other side of the bridge, but... the superiors explained this order very clearly. This steel bridge is the only way for the Vietnamese army to pursue our army. The Vietnamese army is likely to send special forces to intersperse the occupation, which is also the reason why we are eager to blow up the bridge... If the Vietnamese army occupy the bridge, the consequences will be unimaginable!"

After hearing the commander of the engineer, the deputy division commander was stunned. As a commander critic, he knew the power of this. He couldn't help but regret it and stomped his feet and said, "Oh! I would have known that I would have brought a unit up. Look at me... As soon as I heard that you were going to blow up the bridge, I jumped into the car and rushed over..."

"Comrade! Comrade..." In desperation, the deputy teacher asked us to snatch us up and stopped us, and said with a pleading look on his face: "Can you... stay here to help?"

I looked at Li Zhifu and then looked at the soldiers behind me. All the soldiers were silent.

They all knew what the deputy division commander wanted us to stay and do, and they also knew that we could ignore it. After all, the military uniforms of our army from commander to platoon leader were the same in this era, so we pretended not to know that he was a deputy division commander.

But I think if things go like this, either the bridge will be bombed by friendly forces, or it is very likely that the steel bridge will be occupied by Vietnamese agents!

Both of these may not be acceptable to me, so I said to the warriors: "Comrades! We know that you really want to go back to our motherland and return to your hometown. But we can't just watch our comrades on the bridge and never return to our motherland. Of course, this time it is not a task we have to complete, so... if you want to stay, stay, and if you don't want to stay, you can follow other troops to return to your country!"

"Battery Commander, I'll give orders! We can't stand by death and refuse to save us!"

"That's it! We won't leave if the battalion commander doesn't leave!"

"We will do whatever the battalion commander wants us to do!"

...

The soldiers didn't think much about it, but expressed their wishes one by one. This made me feel even more ashamed of these soldiers. They trusted me so much, but I pushed them to the forefront again and again.

"Thank you! Thank you..." The deputy commander knew that we were willing to stay at this time, so he hurriedly held my hand, then turned to the soldiers and shook his hands, saying, "Thank you comrades! Thank you comrades..."

"How many cars do you have in total?" I asked the deputy commander: "Do you know what car the last one is?"

“There are a total…”

The deputy division commander looked at the guard behind him, and the guard responded and said, "There are more than thirty cars!" Then there was no further information.

I couldn't help but frown, knowing that they were not very clear about their troops, so I stopped asking more questions.

After looking at the terrain, it was fine! The steel-building bridge was only more than 20 meters away, and there was a section of highway and an open area of ​​more than 400 meters across the bridge. If Vietnamese agents appeared on the opposite side, we could find them at a glance. This also made us not need to build a position across the bridge.

But I also thought of two difficulties. One is that we must cover the engineers and troops to successfully blow up the bridge. I am still very sure about this. After all, the explosives have been installed, and the more than 200 people in my battalion are not vegetarians now.

Another thing is that we have to wait until the convoy mentioned by the deputy division commander arrives. If they don’t come for a long time or something happens on the road, then we may have to wait for nothing...

So I turned around and asked the deputy division commander again: "Do you have any contact with the car unit?"

"Yes!" The deputy division commander nodded, and then replied in embarrassment: "But I came in a hurry, and the correspondent soldier didn't follow..."

At this time, I couldn't stand it anymore. As a commander... how could I take this or that or not, and I didn't even bring a telecommunications soldier! But when I thought that the engineers were only a little short of a little, I exploded the bridge. If the deputy division commander was a little late, it might be too late, so I didn't say anything more, waved at the soldiers and ordered: "Add defense along the river, pay attention to all suspicious targets on the opposite side!"

"Yes!" The soldiers responded and untied the engineer's shovel and began to dig out the single bunker.

The reason why we built a single bunker instead of digging trenches was that it took at least twenty minutes to dig trenches. At that time, it was possible that the convoy had arrived. And I also used this method to tell the deputy division commander that we could only stay here for twenty minutes at most. If we had a little longer... I would be sorry, and I could only consider my own soldiers...

Helping others is indeed a good moral character, but it must have a bottom line.

But I soon discovered that my worries were unnecessary, because ten minutes later, the roar of cars came faintly from the south, and then I saw a row of cars slowly driving towards us on the road.

"Is it your convoy?" I asked the deputy division commander next to me.

"Yes! That's right!" The deputy commander raised his telescope and looked at it, and said with relief: "It's finally here!"

"There is a situation..." At this time, Li Shuibo's voice suddenly came from the walkie-talkie: "The direction is at 8 o'clock! Suspicious target!"

Looking in the direction indicated by Li Shuibo, a group of dozens of people ran towards the convoy from the woods on the left.

So I quickly understood why Li Shuibo designated them as "suspicious targets" - first, if it were our troops, they should have appeared on the road when the entire army retreated, rather than emerged from the woods. Secondly, for a retreating army, it was very puzzling that they did not run on the bridge but towards the convoy.

Perhaps, this can also be explained by the fact that they wanted to take a ride, but I felt... they were more like they wanted to mix in a convoy and cross the bridge with our soldiers. At that time, we would be afraid of the soldiers from both sides because of the mixed feelings of the soldiers from both sides.

But all of this is my guess after all, and we cannot determine the true identity of that team of infantry...

"Battery Commander!" Li Zhifu also noticed this situation. He looked at the two teams getting closer and closer and asked in a hurry: "What should I do? Or not?"

Fight? Or not?

As a commander, you must make a judgment as quickly as possible. Even if this judgment is proven to be wrong afterwards, it is better than making a wrong judgment after hesitation!

So I immediately ordered to the walkie-talkie: "Everyone is there! Don't shoot and wait for the order!"

As I said that, I raised my rifle and pulled the trigger at the "People's Liberation Army".

"Bang bang bang..." Several bullets flew out, and at that moment, all ten bullets in the magazine hit the feet of the running "People's Liberation Army"...

I am betting on the psychological quality of this "People's Liberation Army".

If they were Vietnamese agents, then they would probably think I had seen through these few shots. Of course, if the Vietnamese agents were of good quality, they would be unmoved and even show their identity to us in Chinese. But I believe that not a Vietnamese agent has such good quality...

As expected, two of the "People's Liberation Army" raised the ak47 in their hands and fired a row of bullets at the car... So everyone confirmed that they were indeed Vietnamese agents.

"Fight!" With my order, the soldiers pulled the trigger at the "People's Liberation Army".

The gunshots quickly turned into a circle. More than 200 soldiers from my battalion lined up on the river bank. The bullets piled up like heavy rain. Although it was difficult for the AK47 to hit the target accurately three hundred meters away, its bullet rain had strong lethality one thousand meters away, so it knocked all the "People's Liberation Army" to the ground in just one minute.

Of course, some of them were lying on the ground looking for opportunities to escape, but I also had more than a dozen members of the shooting team! The sniper rifles in their hands were not vegetarians. With the crisp and clean gunshots, only a dozen Vietnamese agents survived and fell under our guns.

Seeing this, the deputy division commander next to me couldn't help but gasp and asked, "Comrade! Your army is very powerful! The enemy is more than 400 meters away from us, and you can still shoot one..."

I smiled softly and thought to myself that it was only more than 400 meters. This distance may be difficult to hit accurately for AK47 or 56 and a half, but it is a piece of cake for the SVD sniper rifle.

After the gunfire, the team of cars accelerated toward the steel bridge as if they were frightened, but at this time, many Vietnamese troops suddenly rushed out of the woods. Some of them were divided into two parts. One team rushed towards the steel bridge, and the other team rushed towards the highway. Anti-aircraft machine guns and mortar shells also flew directly to the bridge...

The soldiers didn't need my order at all, so they turned their guns and attacked the Vietnamese army that had just rushed out. It should be said that the total number of the Vietnamese army would not be less than that of us. They lost because the firepower had just emerged from the woods and failed to be deployed in time. So they rushed forward and fell down a dozen of them. The rest were so scared that they either fell to the ground or retreated to the woods.

So the Vietnamese army could only watch the cars driving one by one through the steel bridge and entering our position. When the last car crossed the bridge, I immediately shouted to the intercom: "Fourth Company, Sixth Company retreat, and Fifth Company cover!"

"Yes!" the soldiers responded, and some people grabbed their weapons and retreated with the convoy.

The reason why the Fourth and Sixth Company retreated first was that I noticed piles of explosives next to the steel-building bridge. I wonder if the engineers had a grudge against the steel-building bridge or were worried that the bridge was too strong and could not be blown off. The explosives were at least seven or eight hundred kilograms... When so many explosives exploded, they were afraid that the distance would be affected by more than a few hundred meters. And we had to run back at least two hundred meters before turning into the valley. If the fuse was lit and the whole battalion retreated together, they would be blocked on the other end of the road and could not move. At that time, even if we were not dead under the Vietnamese guns, we would be killed by our own explosives.

Seeing that the Fourth and Sixth Company had successfully retreated, I yelled at the engineer cadre: "Light up!"

The engineer cadre nodded and ignited two fuses... I guess the reason why they wanted to arrange two fuses was because they were worried that if there was a problem with one fuse, they could not detonate the explosives. In this direction, these engineers were quite careful.

When I saw the fuse ignited, I didn't dare to neglect it. I shouted at the walkie-talkie and said, "Retreat!"

The engineers climbed onto the already-started cars and jeeps in a panic and drove along the highway. The deputy division commander was quite conscientious and did not leave us first. He also had jeeps but didn't take them to run with us.

However, at this time the soldiers could not care about those things, and they all ran back with great energy. As soon as we rushed into the valley, we heard a loud "boom" behind us. The steel bridge related to the overall withdrawal was blown to pieces in the flames. The fragments of the steel bridge with flames flew around over our heads and the edge of the valley, and the farthest was thousands of meters...

At this time, I don’t know who reported the coordinates, but our artillery soldiers showed their power again. With the sound of whistling in the sky, the shells piled up across the river in pieces, and exploded again to earth. It was finally time for the explosion to stop, and the soldiers finally breathed a sigh of relief and stood up from the ground.

"Comrade! Thank you so much!" As soon as I stood up from the ground, the deputy commander held my hand tightly and said, "If it weren't for you today, the convoy of my troops would probably stay in a foreign country forever!"

"It should! It should!" I replied.

"Comrade! Come on!" Then the deputy commander pointed to the car parked not far ahead and said, "Come on our car! Let's give you a ride..."

I glanced at the soldiers who were full of joy beside me and nodded.

"Oh!" The soldiers cheered and ran towards the car. At this moment of return, the soldiers just wanted to return to their motherland soon, so there was no reason to be unhappy if they had a car.

The soldiers in the car also knew that we saved their lives, so of course they would not refuse. They all enthusiastically pulled the soldiers up and even took the initiative to give their seats to our soldiers.

At the invitation of the deputy division commander, I got on his jeep. With the sound of the motor, the cars drove north like a long dragon. Of course, the engineers left at the end. They retreated while detonating explosives buried on the roadbed one by one. I looked back from behind and saw the entire road turn into sections, like a dead snake chopped off on the chopping board...

No wonder the Vietnamese army was stunned at the ruins when they came back. Seeing this, I couldn't help but shake my head secretly. Just imagine that our army could even blast the road more than 100 meters every time, so I really couldn't think of anything else that could leave for the Vietnamese army.

"Little comrade!" The deputy division commander handed me a cigarette, lit it enthusiastically for me, and then opened the conversation. "Which unit are you from? Why did you retreat so late?"

"Oh!" I spat a mouthful of smoke and replied, "We are from the 639th Regiment of the 213th Division. Because we can't find our own troops in Lang Son, we have been delayed for a little time..."

"What? Are you from the 639th Regiment?" The deputy commander looked at me and said, "Do you know that Cui Wei?"

"I am!" I couldn't help but wonder, how could the deputy commander know my name?

"You are... you are Cui Wei, you are the Second Battalion of the 639th Regiment?" The deputy commander looked at me with surprise.

"Yes!" I nodded: "We are the Second Battalion!"

The deputy commander suddenly laughed: "There is such a coincidence that I can meet you here!"

Then before I could react, the deputy division commander shouted to the soldiers in the car: "Comrades! Haven't you been yelling to meet the soldiers of the Second Battalion of the 639th Regiment and want to meet Cui Wei? The one sitting next to me is Cui Wei, and the one sitting next to you is the soldiers of the Second Battalion!"

After a while, the entire convoy immediately became a mess. Looking forward, the people in each carriage were shaking hands enthusiastically, and some even leaned out to salute me.

I looked at the deputy division commander for some reason, and saw him laughing: "Captain Cui, don't be surprised. Our troops just entered the battlefield yesterday to take on the task of covering the retreat of the troops. They have been stationed on the border as a reserve force before!"

"Oh!" I nodded. I was wondering just now that the soldiers in this army were so clean and complete, and there were very few injured soldiers. It turned out that they had never fought a war before.

"Battlefield Commander Cui!" The deputy commander smiled and said continuously: "Your deeds have spread everywhere in the back, and the newspapers have also been on the radio. He said that when the battle started, you were still a soldier. He became the battalion commander for only a dozen days. He was a tank rescue unit and bravely guarding the bridge... Many soldiers didn't believe it. They wanted to see you, a legendary figure, with their own eyes, and some even wanted to compete with you. Unexpectedly, this first time they met, they were still rescued by you... I wonder what these groups of guys with low eyes would feel!"

So that's the case. I smiled helplessly, but I didn't expect that I still have such a great reputation in the back.

Then I suddenly thought of a piece of information that I had read in modern times - when our army retreated, a unit on cover was cut off by the Vietnamese army and suffered heavy casualties.
Chapter completed!